cover image BEVERLY BILLINGSLY TAKES A BOW

BEVERLY BILLINGSLY TAKES A BOW

Alexander Stadler, . . Harcourt/Silver Whistle, $16 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-15-216816-2

Beverly, who became a library patron in Stadler's Beverly Billingsly Borrows a Book, makes an unprepossessing theatrical debut here. The little gray creature loves playing dress-up at home. She decides on an acting career and plans on singing in her school musical. But she bombs at her audition after counting "twenty-seven faces. That made fifty-four eyes staring at her and waiting." She can't utter a peep. Her theater teacher, a kindly lion, gives her "two parts—The Wall and The Shrub," and one spoken line. Despite her disappointment, Beverly makes the most of her supporting roles. She learns the play by heart and, disguised as background foliage, whispers a prompt when the nervous lead actress gets tongue-tied. Beverly's own stage fright seems to help her empathize with her rival, and she takes her bow with a beatific smile; Stadler, who draws in a pleasingly fumbling ink line with daubs of gouache, conveys her genuine contentment. His story's most convincing moments, including the resolution, happen among the animal-classmates, among them a calf, hippo and crocodile. Beverly's father gives her advice—"there are no small parts, only small actors"—which takes on a dual meaning when Beverly quashes her jealousy to help the star. Stadler's book echoes Horace and Morris Join the Chorus (But What About Dolores?), another piece of good counsel for those consigned to the wings and not the footlights. Ages 3-7. (Apr.)